


Blood and Asphalt

by luveyes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Keith is a handy man, Lance is an editor/blogger, M/M, Reunions, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:48:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29577747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luveyes/pseuds/luveyes
Summary: Its been years since High School, years since the playful rivals had seen each other and neither of them are where they thought they'd be. They decide to mend the distance, as anyone does, with a cross country roundtrip.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Kudos: 5





	Blood and Asphalt

**Author's Note:**

> long time no post! trying to put less pressure on myself by having sort of disconnected scenes? Tell me what you think !

“Keith!”  The receptionist came  running out to his truck. He heaved the  box from the truck bed and shot her a deadpan look.  Her face was flushed , and her brows were furrowed. “Oh , thank god,  there’s this boy asking for you. ” She started hurrying back to the office, Keith quickened his pace to follow her. “ I told him you’d be back soon and then he went out and sat on the curb bawling! Keith, I don’t know what to do-”

“Who? What are you even-”

“I don’t know! He said you guys were old friends, but he was hard to understand through the  crying.” 

“I don’t have any old friends.” 

“Well, I don’t know, that’s just what he said!” 

“Oh.” Keith stopped in his tracks, finally catching sight of the boy sitting on the curb. His box felt dead heavy in his hands and his stomach dropped. Lance sat there, curled in on himself, obviously still sniffling  into his palm. The receptionist urged him fo rward. He put his arms out and raised his eyebrows in  panic. “ What am  _ I _ supposed to do? ” He hissed. 

“Just do something.”  She whispered back.  Keith narrowed his eyes but walked forward. He crouched in front of Lance and set his box down. 

“ Uhh , hey buddy.”  Lance ’s head shot up, big, wide, watery blue eyes met his, his mouth slightly parted.  Keith’s  heartbeat stuttered. 

“Keith.”  Lance’s voice cracked  and he started crying fresh tears,  falling faster  than he could wipe them away. Keith shot a glance back to the receptionist , but she made  a  _ keep going _ gesture and raised her eyebrows. He scowled, what was he supposed to do? Why was Lance crying?  Why is he  _ here? _ Should he like rub his back or something? Lance was hiccupping so horribly , but… they almost sounded like words. “I’m sorry. I  shouldn’t have- I just didn’t know where else- I don’t have anyone, I’m s-sorry. You don’t have to-” 

“Hey, hey, it’s alright.  Let’s get you some water .” He pointedly glanced at the receptionist and she ran inside.  Not even a minute later Keith was pressing the paper cup into Lance’s hand. “Just take a deep breath and then drink.” 

Lance did as he was told, even if it was shaky.  A few cups of water later, his breathing steadied enough to  quell his hiccups . He blushed, heavily , not meeting Keith’s eyes. Keith sighed and moved to sit on the curb beside him instead of crouching. 

“So…” Keith  started. Lance flinched, scrubbing the last few tears away with the back of his hand. 

“I’m sorry.” He said quietly.  “I know this is your work and it’s really weird for me to show up here out of the blue and it’s been  _ years _ and I-”

“It’s fine, Lance. Just why are you here ? ” Lance clamped his mouth shut and rubbed the back of his neck. 

“I didn’t have anywhere else .” 

“Yeah?” Keith snorted , leaning back on his palms.

“I’m  _ serious _ _. _ ” Keith quirked his mouth,  Lance continued, sighing. “My family and I got in a huge fight, Hunk  is off  at camp, Pidge’s in summer classes , Allura’s in fucking England or  _ somewhere _ \- I…  my car broke down a few miles away , my phone’s dead . I just- ugh it’s been such an awful week.” He started tearing up again, digging the palm of his hand into his eyes.  Keith tentatively patted his back, Lance huffed out a laugh. “ I just…”

“I’ll help you.” 

“You will?”  He dropped one hand from his eyes, looking incredulously at Keith. 

“I’m not evil.  I’ll help someone who needs it. Even if that someone is my arch-nemesis who I haven’t seen in two years .” Keith smiled.

“Oh, so you admit it!” Lance knocked their shoulders together , grinning. “Thank you.” 

Keith knocked him over. “Shut up.” 

It was a bit of an ordeal to get Lance’s car into the shop, with a bit of…

…

“ We can’t just  tow cars for the fun of it, Keith.”  Kolivan leveled him a steady glare. Lance shifted his weight from foot to foot behind Keith. 

“I’ll do it, I just need the tow truck.” Keith insisted. 

“You don’t know how to hook up a car.”

“Says who.” Kolivan gave an exasperated huff and gestured to the tow truck keys.

…

“Keith, are you  _ sure _ this is how it hooks up?” Lance questioned. Keith tapped his chin, tilting his head before sighing and taking out his phone. 

“Hello yes, Marmora Handy-”

“I need  Thace .”

“Oh, Keith,” The receptionist sighed, “ I’ll send him over. And just because I’m nice I won’t tell  Kolivan .” 

…

“You almost had it, just this one right here . ”  Thace gestured.

“I told you I knew what I was doing.”  Keith  crossed his arms as  Thace and Lance exchanged a look.

“You  _ almost _ knew what you were doing , mullet.” Lance bit back playfully, bumping him in the shoulder.

…

But they got it there,  Thace lowered it neatly in place so the three of them could maneuver it through the huge garage doors into Keith’s part of the shop.  Thace clapped and Keith stomped over to his desk to grab a couple things, mainly his gloves and something that vaguely looked like a stud finder to Lance. He watched as Keith slipped his gloves on, stretching his fingers, clenching and unclenching them, tightening the wrist strap, and wiggling his fingers again. He had big hands, shorter fingers then Lance did, but just… large. They looked strong. He turned around and walked to the car, circling it. Lance swallowed. He cleared a space for himself and hopped on top of Keith’s desk.

“So, this is your shop?” Lance asked,  swinging his feet.  Keith looked back at him when he spoke and scowled. 

“Get off my desk.” Lance just rolled his eyes, still swinging his feet. Keith frowned further. “I don’t usually work in the shop. I’m usually sent out, but yes, it’s mine when I’m here at least.” 

“Sent out?”

“For whatever, I just finished a big welding contract. Right now, it’s usually just day jobs, hooking up ceiling fans, making bookshelves, not usually cars.” He waved his hand and shrugged, opening the driver’s side door.

“You’re a real handy man, huh?”

“That’s the name of the business.” Lance just hummed, looking around. He craned his long neck up to look at the high ceilings, his legs still swinging. Keith coughed a little and decidedly turned back to the engine. It had only been two years, but somehow Lance had hit another growth spurt since Senior year. Keith hadn’t grown at all for... obvious reasons. His legs were longer than Keith remembered, and that didn’t have anything to do with the short blue shorts he was wearing. It was hot, nearly summer, of course Lance was wearing shorts, it was weird for Keith to be wearing pants, not the other way around. He crouched to plug in his detector, hoping it was a simple and easy diagnosis. 

It  wasn’t .

…

It was a longer tune up  then he expected . At some point the receptionist turned on the flood lights so Keith could keep working.  Lance’s car was in awful shape . It needed new parts,  a tire patch, an oil change, the convertible top  wouldn’t secure , the weather stripping was coming off, and countless other  issues. He could only do so much in an evening. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and glanced over at Lance. He dragged a chair in from somewhere and  was sleeping with his arms pillowed underneath his head.  That was enough for today.  He double checked the lift to make sure the car  wouldn’t fall overnight  and went to wash  up and strip out of his coveralls . 

He came back and shook Lance’s shoulder. “Come on, it’s  almost nine.” Lance groaned and cracked open a bleary eye, looking up at Keith. “Your car sucks. It needs a lot of work.” He groaned again and rubbed his eyes, sitting up. 

“I just bought it. All they told me was that the roof wouldn’t latch.” His voice was gravely and  low. “Just another thing to add to the list.” He said bitterly.  “If  it’s a lot, you don’t  have to fix it, well you don’t have to fix it at all. Thank you for fixing it.”

“I like having projects.” Keith shrugged .  He looked back at the car , reaching up to take his hair out of its ponytail. “Since your car is out of commission, do you need a ride somewhere?” He  snapped the hairband against his wrist and shook out his hair.  Lance was looking at him but looked down when Keith met his eyes, clearing his throat. 

“Well… I don’t really have anywhere.” 

“Huh?” 

“I told you earlier, my family all but kicked me out and all my friends are across or out of the country.  I was going on a road trip but…” He trailed off, looking at his car. “I guess let me look up some hotels.” He sighed. Keith’s heart ripped,  could he offer? Would that be weird? Were they still friends? Were they ever close enough friends that this  wouldn’t be weird? Would Lance even  _ want- _

_ “ _ You could stay at my place.” Keith gulped. Well, okay,  he’s offering then.  Lance looked up at him sharply. 

“Really?”

“I have a couch and everything.” Lance  chuckled a little at that. 

“Alright. Thank you.” 

…

Lance fell asleep on the way home and quickly faceplanted into the couch similarly. Keith  shoved him over and handed him his phone. “Order pizza.”

“Why do  _ I _ have to.” He  grumbled , rubbing his eyes . 

“because I’m taking a shower.”

…

Keith’s hair was still dripping as he padded out of the bathroom. He heard Lance  talking joyfully with the pizza man and Keith went over to the fridge to grab them both some juice. 

“Keith!” He turned, pausing in the middle of pouring two  g lasses. “Your hair is soaking wet!” Lance squawked, holding the pizza boxes aloft. 

“So?” He quickly put the boxes down on the small counter and stalked to the couch where he had thrown his towel. Lance came back, holding the towel open wide. “Lance,  wha -” Lance threw the towel over his head and  fluffed it around his hair.  H e pulled it away . Keith glared from underneath his newly fluffed hair. 

“Cute!”

“Yeah,  haha .” Keith quickly smoothed his hair down. “It would have air dried.”

“But it would have dripped everywhere.” Keith only shrugged. Lance gaped at him for a second before shaking his head. “Weirdo.” He grabbed the boxes and brought them over to the couch. Keith followed him.  It was a nice hour or so. They  didn’t talk about anything important, although  Keith noticed Lance opening his mouth a few times before clamping it shut , only to comment the next moment on something silly. Keith wondered if  they’d talk about the gaping years of distance between them. He felt it so acutely in the  way Lance positioned himself precisely so his crossed leg  wouldn’t brush Keith’s thigh.  They watched a “ah remember this show!?” show, only two episodes in Lance slumped over onto the couch. Keith sighed and went to fetch him some blankets , a pillow , and a phone charger . 

He  plugged Lance’s phone into  the charger and tucked the blanket up around Lance’s chin. Lance let out a sleepy little whimper and clutched onto it tightly. Keith’s heart swelled and he blinked the  endearment from his eyes. It had been years for  fucks sake, he needed to get it together. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
